Two arrested over Kampala murder

Feb 06, 2012

The police in Kampala arrested two people in connection with the murder of a Kampala businessman and his houseboy.

By Eddie Ssejjoba      
           
The police in Kampala arrested two people in connection with the murder of a Kampala businessman and his houseboy in a city suburb.

The police said two men had been arrested on Saturday night after intensive investigations and search around the area, during which the police sealed off the home of Wilberforce Noah Wamala Ssendeba in Mutungo Zone 3, in Nakawa Division.

 Wamala’s body was found lying in a corridor separating the main house and the kitchen at about 12.00 noon on Friday, hours after he had been killed.

The body of his houseboy, one Sadati, with whom they had been staying with in this home was abandoned a few meters from his.

The officer in charge of Jinja Road police station, Christopher Katumba said both bodies bore wounds and deep cuts around the neck.

He said the assailants could have used sharp knives or machetes because Wamala’s throat was cut so deep.

He explained that there must have been a struggle and one of the assailants was injured, because the police found traces of blood drops away from the scene of crime.

Katumba was however hesitant to reveal the identities of the suspects arrested, saying investigations would continue and ‘it was premature’ to ascertain whether they would be incriminated.

“The police did not recover any tool used in the murder but we believe the killers used knives to cut the throats, because for Wamala the cut went almost two inches deep,” Katumba explained.

According to the officer, the assailants ransacked house and left all the doors and the main get open.

The police later carried the bodies to the city mortuary where a postmortem was done. Wamala was later transported to Kaswa in Kalungu district for burial.

The Commander of Kampala Metropolitan Police, Andrew Kaweesi said the police were following hints that the cause of murder was business related.

Wamala recently returned from a business trip to London and had a score of businesses including importation of garments. He had shops at Mini Price, Arrow Center and City Center shopping malls and was also constructing a house in Muyenga, a city suburb.

“I don’t want to divulge much of want the police have so far discovered because investigations are still going on, but we believe the cause is business related,” he said.

The police sealed off the home on Friday and Saturday and did not allow the public including relatives to access the scene in what Kaweesi said ‘police wanted to get details, so they had to preserve the scene’.

He said the killers must have been organized given the way they undertook the task and police suspects one of them must have had thorough knowledge of the home.

Though workmates suspect the murder could have taken place between 8.00am and 9.00am on Friday, Kaweesi said it was hard for the police to establish the exact time.

“One of the workmates told us that he constantly called Wamala’s cell phone and he was not picking, so he decided to check his home only to find the two bodies lying separately,” Kaweesi explained.

Wamala’s driver, Ben Zziwa told police that someone used the houseboy’s cell phone to call him at about 8.00am and asked him not to come home, saying his boss (Wamala) had directed him to wait at the construction site in Muyenga.

This could have given time to the assailants to execute their mission without interruption, the police said.

Wamala lived with only the houseboy after separating with his wife.             





 

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